Gilles P Digs America, and we dig him plenty too – so the feeling is mutual! This time around, Mr P's shown us again that he still has an amazing talent for picking up a groove – as most of the tracks on this set were shopped by Peterson in the year or so before the compilation – proving that there's still plenty of great grooves in the record racks, as long as you've got your eyes and ears open! The vibe here is great – very jazzy, very deep – and a reminder that although he's a key tastemaker for contemporary grooves, Gilles can still wend his way through older jazz, soul, and vocal tracks better than anyone else. Many of the tracks are of west coast origin, and like the first volume, this set's supported by great notes, and even a few great photos of key Bay Area record stores too. Titles include "Going To California" by Irene Kral, "Call To Worship" by Bethlehem Progressive Ensemble, "You Know Baby" by Mary Lou Williams with Leon Thomas, "Make Love To Me" by Carrie Cleveland, "Why Can't There Be Love" by Dee Edwards, "Intergalactic Love Song" by The Diddys, "Movin On" by Ray Camacho, "Sadness In My Samba" by Steve Parks, "In Every Way" by Reverie, "Boys With Toys" by Gap Mangione, "My Favorite Things" by Al Jarreau, "The Pussy's In The Well" by Mary Lou Williams, "Never In My Life" by The Love Affair, "Brougham" by Musicians For The Summer Program, and the CD debut of "The Old One Two" by Ramp. CD

Very spiritual sounds from Baast – a group with roots in the Heru Avenger/Initiates International world at the early part of this century – re-emerging here with an even sharper sound! Heru Avenger John Basil is in the group on bass, and is credited with "visions" for the lineup – and R Scott co-leads on keyboards, which often get the chance to spin out in these really great ways. But there's also definitely some strong group energy going on – a more collaborative, spiritual feel – from instrumentation that includes woodwinds, vibes, harp, theremin, viola, wood flute, and a lot of percussion. Titles include "Pharoah's Serpent", "Her Deadly Oasis", "The Anubis Dawn", "Translations", and "Teleportation". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary industrial project from the New York scene – a group that features artist Jean Michel Basquiat on vocals – plus Michael Holman and Nick Taylor on vocals, keyboards, and a lot of processing and effects! Instrumentation includes a guitar with a metal file, making tape and steel ball bearings, and lots of odd, unusual, pre-industrial sounds! There's occasional moments of found sound samples, blended with the other elements at a level that's almost more UK post-punk, but with the occasional old school hip hop sensibility – all as dark and moody as the group's name, and surprisingly strong after all these years. The record was so much a genre-crossing effort it was a bit lost at the time, but has since gone on to be the stuff of legend – and titles include "The Man Who", "Gauntlet Of Wrigglys", "Eight Hour Religion", "Figure It Out For Yourself", and "The Mysterious Ashley Bickerton". This 3LP set expands the original record with some remixes from King Britt, Tewz, Hank Shocklee, Todd Rundgren, Gaslamp Killer, and Sal P of Liquid Liquid – plus appearances by Amir Yaghmai and Kool Keith! LP, Vinyl record album

A really great second album from Ikebe Shakedown – easily the group's best work so far, and a real cut above the usual Afro-styled groove! These guys have a great way of laying back in their rhythms – still keeping things funky, but nicely paced too – so that there's a fresh feel to the way they layer together their horns and percussion, and let the keyboards nicely simmer away in the groove! The style's a bit like what El Michels did to more conventional funk groups – with the same sort of super-dope results – and the whole thing was recorded perfectly at the Daptone Studios, with a massively old school sort of vibe. The whole thing's instrumental, and titles include "The Beast", "Rio Grande", "The Offering", "Stone By Stone", "Last Stand", "Dram", "Chosen Path", and "Cover Your Tracks". LP, Vinyl record album

Shawn Lee's always been one to revive some of our favorite grooves from the past – and this time around, he takes on the great 60s genre of the surf film – a soundtrack mode that has a lot more to offer than just Ventures and Beach Boys tunes! Lee works beautifully here in a blend of some of the more creative American surf score modes, mixed with the best of the Aussie approaches as well – a wonderful groove that's still as funky as Shawn's other albums on Ubiquity, but also brings up the guitars a bit more, and spaces out the production – making for a really unique blend of instrumental gems! Lee's contributions number a whopping 28 in all – killer tunes that step around sonic territory that few others could touch – with titles that include "Afro Surf", "Lava", "Erotic Drums", "Sweet Sixteen", "1994", "Murf The Surf", "Capricorn", "Hollisday", "Below The Surface", "Very Bari", "Southern Surfer", "Totally Tubular", and "Nino Nino". The CD package features a full bonus disc of material, too – played by Band Of Frequencies, Afro Dizzi Act, and Low Pressure Sound System – equally compelling numbers, but often tunes that have a longer feel, and a few more rockish touches – although we mean that in a good way. Titles include "Sol Train", "Spoonbender", "The Drop Off", "Storm Front", and "Deep Dish". CD

The Monophonics definitely have a way of getting inside your brain – using a cosmic slop of fuzzy guitars and funky basslines to eat away your grey matter more than a maggot inside your cranium! Yet even past that heavy Funkadelic reference, they've also got a richer vibe too – elements of 60s psych mixed in with their funk – particularly in the way that the younger generation's been re-digging crates from the early 70s these days – especially some of the more farther-flung tracks from the global underground. There's slight Afro elements at times, garagey bits at others, and even some well-timed rhythms that help the whole thing have a good sense of focus – and save it from the overindulgence that toppled the hippie generation before they even got started. Titles include "Mirage", "Bang Bang", "Temptation", "In Your Brain", "Sure Is Funky", "There's A Riot Going On", "Say You Love Me", "They Don't Understand", and "Thinking Black". LP, Vinyl record album

Great stuff from global funk phenoms Nomo – deftly blending Afro steeped funk with an astral reach – with more of a spiritual jazz influence and off kilter avant touches! Invisible Cities arrives just about a year since their breakthrough Ghost Rock opened so many doors, and although productivity and consistency have never been a problem with Elliot Bergman & co, we're still pretty awestruck – especially given that Ghost Rock set the bar pretty high! Blazing horns, dynamic rhythms and rapturous percussion galore, with the electric kalimba still defining the group's identity nicely, with lots of sweaty funk, more spacious spiritual jazz atmosphere, and a couple of choice covers – Moondog's "Bumba" gets a bit of Caribbean funk treatment with steel drums, plus a reverent take on Tom Ze's "Ma"! Other tracks include "Invisible Cities", "Waiting", "Crescent", "Patterns", "Elijah" and "Nocturne". CD

A massive amount of rare work from East Bay funk maestro Eugene Blacknell – an artist who never cut a full album, but managed to record a lot of great funky tracks over the years! This package is the first ever full length set to focus on Eugene's work, and it's a treasure trove of guitar-heavy groovers – starting with some rough-edged, raw R&B-styled funk – then moving into some fuller party funk and boogie-styled numbers! Eugene's guitar is fully in the lead on most tracks – and the vibe of the later work is in a space that's somewhere between Bootsy Collins and Shuggie Otis – a very good place to be, in our opinion. The package was done in collaboration with Eugene's son, and features rare singles, remastered cuts, and even some exclusive and live tracks that have never seen the light of day before. The set features a whopping 25 tracks in all, all with great notes on Eugene's music and story – and titles that include "Cousin John", "Mo Self", "Jump Back", "Getting Down", "The Trip", "Dance To The Rhythm", "For The Sake Of Love", "Jive Kinda Friends", "Wah Wah Funk", "Space Funk", "Don't Stop Now", "Grov-ve Monkey", and even a few rare radio spots! CD

Some of the most upbeat work we've ever heard from Bosq – a nicely-grooving cut that serves up unabashed club, and with a nice sort of 70s vibe to boot! The track's got heavy percussion at the bottom and great female vocals on the top – and almost feels like some lost track pulled out of the vaults of Salsoul Records, circa 1978! "Take Me There" is great too – with more of the same sort of special brew, at a level that's got us giving Bosq a lot more respect than before! Nicole Willis sings on "Take Me" – and gives the tune an even deeper sense of soul! 12-inch, Vinyl record

The much anticipated full length debut of Brooklyn Afro Funk and psych soul-influenced combo Ikebe Shakedown – following up their tight, promising EP on the Colemine label with an excellent self-titled set on Ubiquity! One of our favorite things about Ikebe Shakedown's style is the way they blend signature elements of classic Afro Funk and soul with more broadly influenced grooves. Heavy horns and pummeling drums, vamping guitar licks and elastic basslines are prominent and funky – but they work with more measured and spaced out material, too. It's roomy enough to let the individual musicianship shine, and the production is really great. Includes ""Tujumba", "Kumasi Walk", "No Name Bar", "Tame The Beats", "Don't Contradict", "Refuge", "In Circles", "Asa-Sa", "The Hold Up", "The Viking" and "Five Points". 10 tracks on the vinyl. LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary album from Chicago – recorded by a group with ties to Sun Ra, Phil Cohran, and Earth Wind & Fire! The set's got a sound that more than lives up to all those references – a vibe that's jazzy and soulful, yet often quite righteous too – imbued with the sort of spirit you'd guess from the group's name and the album's cover image – but often served up with a tight enough groove to make the set a favorite for fans of funk as well! There's a really special mix going on here – and unlike other ensembles of the time, The Pharoahs never go too far out – and instead really have the great sort of focus you'd hear even more strongly with Earth Wind & Fire. The lineup features Louis Satterfield on bass, Willie Woods on trombone, Don Myrick on saxes, Black Herman on drums, and Derf Reklaw on percussion and flute – and titles include "Ibo", "Somebody's Been Sleeping", "Damballa", "Freedom Road", "Great House", and "Black Enuff". LP, Vinyl record album

Funky funky California – and a great set of rare grooves from the 70s! The folks at Luv N Haight records are up to their old tricks – digging through the crates for the kind of hard-to-find funky tracks that first gave birth to the fame of the Ubiquity label. The set traces a sound that barely shows up in the history books – the harder funky sound of California in the 70s, a scene that was mostly underground, and which stood in stark contrast to the smoother sounds coming out on major labels at the time. A few of the artists on the set might be familiar through other Luv N Haight reissues, and there's others here that we've never heard at all – grooving in hard and heavy styles that spread across the Sunshine State from East LA to Funky Frisco to Oaktown – a total of 14 tracks that include "Freaky To You" by Sweet Stuff, "Losing You" by Cordial, "Love & Affection" by Ike White, "Freedom Time" by Linda Tillery, "Patience" by Rokk, "Party Time" by Roy Porter, "Carnaval" by Oquesta Esencia, "Wobble Cha" by Cool Benny, "Feelin Alright" by West Coast Revival, "Where Do We Go From Here" by Cool Sounds, "Hang On In There" by Mike James Kirkland, "Daydreamer" by Adele Sebastian, and "A Real Thing" by Sons & Daughters Of Life. CD

A legendary industrial project from the New York scene – a group that features artist Jean Michel Basquiat on vocals – plus Michael Holman and Nick Taylor on vocals, keyboards, and a lot of processing and effects! Instrumentation includes a guitar with a metal file, making tape and steel ball bearings, and lots of odd, unusual, pre-industrial sounds! There's occasional moments of found sound samples, blended with the other elements at a level that's almost more UK post-punk, but with the occasional old school hip hop sensibility – all as dark and moody as the group's name, and surprisingly strong after all these years. The record was so much a genre-crossing effort it was a bit lost at the time, but has since gone on to be the stuff of legend – and titles include "The Man Who", "Gauntlet Of Wrigglys", "Eight Hour Religion", "Figure It Out For Yourself", and "The Mysterious Ashley Bickerton". This 2CD set expands the original record with some remixes from King Britt, Tewz, Hank Shocklee, Todd Rundgren, Gaslamp Killer, and Sal P of Liquid Liquid – plus appearances by Amir Yaghmai and Kool Keith! CD

Funk-tinged modern soul from Mama's Gun – the London based combo who've been making waves across the globe for close to a decade leading up to Golden Days, which sounds right at home on Ubiquity Records! The songs and overall sound blend vintage inspiration with sly modern touches, from a breezy group soul style over Stax-y horns, Cali psych soul guitars over impressive harmonies and seriously effective lead vocals from front man Andy Platts, often with ambitious instrumental elements with bits of flute, strings and piano. Includes "You Make My Life A Better Place", "On The Wire", "I Need A Win", "Diamond In The Bed Jar", "London Girl", "The Spooks", "We", "Golden Days", "Strangers On A Street" and "This Is The Day". CD

After having such great success with their two recent Bobby Matos recordings, Cubop has gone ahead and put together this great collection of material that Bobby recorded over the past 15 years. It includes a few tracks recorded for Cubop and not released at the time (including a very funky Latin version of "Chameleon"), some that were only issued in limited editions, and a number that came out on a now-out of print release called Collage. As with all of Bobby's releases, the CD is a great batch of Latin jazz that never lets up for a minute. The band is always tight, the music's always smokin, and the choice of material is excellent. With "The Creator Has A Master Plan", "Mi Guaguanco", and "Afro Cubisimo". CD